Peter's Progress Options

[pjf]

Hi All. I've been around for awhile and even made a few posts but I finally got around to starting this restoration thread. My only claim to fame I would say is I was the guy who loaned Willam Harris some beat up steel wheels to finish his paint job. Still don't know why he returned them in favor of his pristine Fuchs.... Anyway, more years back than I'd care to admit I got the idea to restore a 914 and convert it to electric. I've worked on cars on an off and even graduated from the Somerville High Adult Ed Welding Night Course so I figured I'd go for it. A fairly ignorant Ebay winning bid later and I found myself the owner of a 76 from Texas. When the owner said that the right side door had a "latch problem" and the door wouldn't open I figured simple door repair, right? This was before discovering 914World and all the great information here. Things like don't buy 914s that have doors that don't open and don’t get POR-15 on your hootus. The thread by Michelko particularly inspired me to tackle the right side long. You guys are great and I want to thank everyone for their very helpful posts. (I got a “rebate” from the seller by the way).

Anyway here’s the car stripped down. As you can see space is no problem.

[charliew]

You can see the penetration on his previous post. It's hard to get good welds on old metal through a small hole. A little more heat might be better and maybe less wire. That old metal may be thinner than it looks. Fixing a blowthrough is a pain. I always seem to put on too much wire and end up grinding more than most. My best friend is a fabricator by trade and he is pretty gentle with me when I ask for his input. I am amazed at watching him wave the gun around and then look at his perfect beads. I don't jump around near as much but my beads don't have the nice even width and height his do. He can't see any better than me but it sure looks like it by his welds. I wish I could tig like him but there isn't enough time left to get his experience.
Lookin good Peter
Charliew